Stiff Person Syndrome can cause swallowing problems to the point of medical crisis. The patient then develops severe anticipatory anxiety about swallowing and starts to avoid eating. They are mistakenly misdiagnosed as having anorexia nervosa (by, in my book, incurious and mediocre docs)

”With abnormally low GABA, the firing frequency of nerve cells increases and leads to conditions like anxiety and seizure disorders. Various other neurological and cognitive problems are also associated with low levels of GABA including cerebellar ataxia and limbic encephalitis (LE) along with anxiety and epilepsy.”

Many professionals observe that people with Stiff Person Syndrome are afraid to venture into open space because of the risk of falling, since loud noises startle thenervous system and cause leg spasms and thus falling. Clinicians then conclude that agoraphobia can occur (fear of being in open spaces and public),

Some Psychologists, however, observe that the term Agoraphobia refers to an irrational fear, whereas the SPS patients fear is not irrational but good judgment. Agoraphobics aren’t afraid of open spaces per se. They are fearful of becoming anxious, thus precipitating a panic attack.

Personally I wonder if the use of this psychiatric term is a holdover from thinking these patients are not sick with a neurological disorder, but are just anxious and depressed.

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